I'll Fly Away
by VampireElite
Summary: If I had the chance to fly, I'd take it. Because if I could fly, I could escape this hellhole that used to be our world. Maybe it would be selfish, considering the people I'd have to leave behind, but sometimes you have to put yourself in front of others. But since I can't fly, maybe I'll find another way to escape. Because I can't stay with these people. They won't survive. SemiAH
1. Preface

**Major Characters:** Rose Hathaway, Lissa Dragomir, Andre Dragomir, Mia Rinaldi, Eddie Castille, Mason Ashford, Dimitri Belikov, Christian Ozera, Tasha Ozera, Alberta Pitrov, Sydney Sage, Adrian Ivashkov.

**Summary**: When Rose Hathaway and her best friend Lissa Dragomir set out to explore their world, which is now filled with the undead, they face many challenges. They must overcome danger, betrayal, hardship and heartbreak, and much, much more. Rose is the perfect guardian for Lissa, because there's no way Lissa can survive without someone to protect her. But will Rose be able to keep her alive, or will she end up leading Lissa to her death? Maybe Lissa would be safer if Rose was gone. Maybe everyone would be safer if she was gone. Sometimes, when it comes to the people you love, you have to sacrifice yourself. The trials Rose Hathaway are about to begin. Will she be a survivor, or will she get tangled up in the trials of others?

**Author's Note:** My idea of how the undead act are mainly based on The Walking Dead, and all the [living] characters belong to Richelle Mead. The plot, however, is mine. Some chapters may be told in other's point of view. This story is rated M for RxD and LxC moments, as well as gore.

_**Preface**_

I saw it first on the news.

I was sitting on a soft velvet couch with my best friend, Lissa Dragomir, and her brother, Andre Dragomir. Their parents were out on a date somewhere, at a fancy restaurant that cost a fortune to eat at.

We thought it was a joke at first. Because surely this wasn't possible. If you were dead, then you stayed dead. You didn't come back, and you certainly didn't come back a cannibal. I mean seriously, zombies? They weren't real. It defied nature to come back. It defied God, for those who were believers.

So yeah, we didn't take it seriously. We just laughed it off. Made jokes about it.

But then...

Lissa's parents came home. Her father, Eric, was carrying her mother, Rhea. It would've been cute if Eric's expression would've been different. He was in a panic, and he was shaking. He kept trying to talk to us, trying to tell us something, but he was in hysterics.

We finally got him calmed down, and he set Rhea down on another couch. She looked like she was sleeping, and that's what I would have believed if it weren't for the huge gash in her leg. A chunk of flesh had been ripped away, and as soon I saw the wound I wanted to puke. I looked away quickly, and instead focused on Lissa, who was now sobbing, asking what happened to her mother.

"Listen to me," Eric said, "I want you to stay here. Lock all the doors, all the windows, everything. All three of you, stay in Lissa's room. Do not come out until I come home. I'm taking your mother to the doctor." He said it all in a rush, and then he was gone in a flash. He never told us what happened, but I could take a guess.

We did as he said, because we were too shocked to do otherwise. We locked ourselves in Lissa's room, and waited. And waited. And waited.

Hours passed, but Eric didn't come back. Neither did Rhea.

As we were sitting in Lissa's room, on the second floor of their large house, I heard a noise. It sounded strange, like a groaning sound mixed in with a choking sound. I stood up, and drew back the purple curtains that covered Lissa's large window.

I will never forget what I saw. It was the first time I saw the undead in person, and they were much worse in person than they were on TV. There were about seven outside Lissa's house, and they were all much worse than I expected. They were covered in flesh and blood, and some had chunks of their bodies missing. One had organs hanging out of it's body, and I felt bile rise in my throat. They were terrible.

I was the first one to take action. "Come on. They're not coming back." It killed me to tell my best friend that her parents were gone, but I knew what we had to do.

"Rose, no. We have to stay. Daddy said so. He's coming back. He said so!" Lissa was in hysterics now.

"Lissa, there are dead people outside! Dead people who are stumbling around and eating other dead people! We are leaving, right now, before they get in this house."

"Rose is right." Andre said. "We can't stay here, or else we might be trapped."

Lissa began sobbing, and I walked over to her, embracing her in my arms. She cried on my shoulder, and I stood there, comforting her with my presence. After about five minutes, I decided that we needed to get packing.

"I don't know what we can do, or where we can go, but we have to leave," I said. "We need to find out what's going on."

"I'll go grab the first aid stuff," Lissa said quietly.

"I'll get some food." Andre said, giving a nod.

I had practically lived with Lissa my entire life. My mom, the famous Janine Hathaway, was a businesswoman who worked for the government, and she was rarely ever home. My dad, Abe Mazur, was a multimillionaire who basically lived in his office. He worked in a huge fancy building, and apparently money meant more to him than family. So I owed it to the Dragomir's for giving me a family. And I would do everything I could to protect them. I was going to become the guardian of this family. I was going to finally take a stand, and protect what was mine.

"I'll go get the weapons." I replied, with a face blank of all emotions.

So we set off, after we had our supplies gathered. The only weapons in the house were two pistols, and I couldn't find any bullets, save for the ones that were already in the guns. I held on to one pistol while Andre took the other, and Lissa carried a small backpack filled with supplies.

Getting out of the house was easy enough, but once we were in the streets... Well, it was sheer luck that we survived. After we started walking, a walker came towards us, moving pretty fast. I had shot a gun before, but I wasn't good with my aim. I fired two rounds before I hit him, and even then he still didn't die.

"What the hell are we supposed to do?" I said quickly. "They're already dead!"

We were silent for a few moments before Lissa spoke up. "The brain. Nothing can function without the brain. The heart is needed for pumping blood and breathing and stuff, but obviously they don't need air or blood. But without the brain, they can't function. They can't move or think or anything."

I was no genius, so I didn't know if what Lissa said would work or not. Worth a try, though. After firing another round, I hit the walker in his head. He fell to the ground with a thunk, right in front of us.

I had just killed my first walker. My victory was short-lived, however, because just then three more walkers came shuffling towards us. And others were following.

"Oh God," I said. "We're going to die."

I started firing again, and so did Andre. There were too many, though. When more kept coming, we kept firing. And the noise attracted more and more of the undead. The groups were drawing closer, and we ran out of bullets.

"Andre, what are we supposed to do?" Lissa said. "We're trapped!"

"I don't know," he told her. "We need to run."

"Look, through there," I said, indicating to a gap between a group of walkers.

We took off at a run, and barged through the group. My heart was pounding in my ears, and my feet were rapidly slapping the pavement. We were almost through the group, and the walkers were turning towards us. We picked up our pace, running for our lives to escape the undead.

But Andre didn't quite make it.

Everything was fine, until he tripped. The walkers were on him in seconds, and I had to hold Lissa back to keep her from meeting the same fate. "Come on!" I screamed. "He's gone, Lissa, gone. And if you don't keep running right now, you'll be gone too!"

A lone tear ran down her face, and she turned and ran with me.

A few of the walkers who weren't too busy feasting on Andre followed us, but they couldn't catch up. Just as we were about to round a corner, we heard shots being fired. There wasn't time to look back. We just had to keep running.

And we did. We kept running. We moved from place to place. If we were lucky, we stayed at a place until supplies ran out. If we weren't lucky, we stayed until the walkers became too plentiful.

At first, we didn't see many walkers, save for the group outside Lissa's old house. I guess that people fled when the walkers came, but it didn't save all of them. After a year or so, the walkers started traveling in herds, because people were running out.

Whatever the reason for the now plentiful walkers, I knew that I would have to keep the danger at bay for Lissa. She had lost her whole family in less than 24 hours. I was used to being abandoned, so it didn't effect me as bad as it did Lissa. I was always there for Lissa, always helping her.

But she was becoming depressed. She didn't cut herself or anything, but the light in her eyes was gone. As hard as I tried, I knew that I wasn't enough to keep Lissa alive. We needed to find people. We needed to settle down. We couldn't run forever.

**Well, how did you like the preface? Ready for Chapter One? Now, I'm not sure when I'll be able to work on this, because I won't be around much for a few weeks, and I'm currently working on another story. BUT, since I can't really find inspiration for my other story, I'll mainly be working on this one. You can expect more chapters in a few weeks, but I may not be able to add a chapter each week. Anyways, thank you for reading!  
~ VE**


	2. Chapter 1

**2 Years Later**

**Chapter 1**

I kicked lazily at a can as we walked down the cracked asphalt of the neighborhood road. The sound of tin hitting asphalt filled the air, and three walkers started making their way over to us.

"Rose, I wish you wouldn't do that."

"Why?"

"Because. You're just making noise so that they'll come over here and you can kill them."

I turned my head slightly towards Lissa. "So?"

"So? Don't you think it's a little cruel?" I swear, Lissa has a soft spot for anything and everything.

"Just giving them a taste of their own medicine." The truth was, I did love killing walkers. Killing them gave me this outlet for my anger. It wasn't cruel to kill them... I mean, after all, if I was a man-eating monster, I'd want someone to kill me. So I was kind of just doing them a favor. This is what I told myself as I swung my sword across the first walkers neck.

I had found the sword one day while we were exploring a house. I'm pretty sure it was an antique, but oh well. It had been one of those swords that hung across a shield to make a place look medieval. I didn't think anyone would miss it, so I took it. It had become my second best friend.

The second walker was up now, and the third was following close behind him. I threw up my foot and kicked the walker in the stomach. She fell into the one behind her, and they crashed to the pavement. I stabbed my sword into the brain of the one on top, and left the third walker stranded underneath.

"See, I'm not cruel. I spared his life, didn't I?" I indicated to the stranded walker with my sword. Lissa just rolled her eyes, and gave me a small smile. She knew I was a badass.

I smiled back, but the smile died on my lips as soon as I looked behind her. A group of walkers had obviously heard the commotion, because they were now walking towards us. And this was a big group. There were about twelve walkers, and there was no way I could fend them all off considering my only weapon was a sword. I had given up using guns a long time ago, because they always seemed to run out of bullets when I needed them most.

Lissa glanced behind her, and her eyes widened. "Rose," she whispered.

"Run." I replied.

We turned around, and started running. I was easily outrunning Lissa, and I knew that she couldn't run for very long. She wasn't out of shape or anything, I was just very... in shape, from killing countless walkers. Slowing down my pace, I ran alongside Lissa. We followed the yellow lines of the road, scanning the city for somewhere to escape. We passed a few allies, and came across a small building. It was a dull gray color, and had only one window. Easy to secure. "In there." I said.

We started towards the door, but just then I heard a commotion behind us. Turning around, I spotted the group of walkers that had been chasing us. One had tipped over a trashcan, and the lid was still rattling. And then, a few feet away, another group of walkers came pouring out of a building.

"Shit!" I said. I ran towards the door of the small gray building and tried opening it. I pounded my fist against it, but it wouldn't budge. "Shit." I repeated.

The walkers were upon us now. I grabbed Lissa's hand, and we started running. The other group had advanced on us now. "Come one!" I said, tugging Lissa down one of the allies. I looked behind us to see if the walkers were following. They were.

Suddenly Lissa came to an abrupt halt. "No!" she screamed.

Turning to face her, I saw what the problem was. The ally was a dead end. "Oh God," I breathed.

We turned back to the walkers, who were upon us now. I took out my sword and started slashing aimlessly, ignoring the blood that was splattering on us. A slashed towards a walker and knocked him to the ground, then drove my sword in his head. I turned around to deal with the next walkers, but slimy, flesh-rotten hands grabbed my arm and pulled me forwards. I tried pulling my arm away, but tripped over a fallen body.

The walker's face was my worst nightmare. I could see each and every flesh-covered tooth, rotting gums, and blood-covered face. His skin... Oh, God, his _skin. _Nothing that revolting had ever been in my face before. I was so shocked that I couldn't move. I could only hold him off of me.

Suddenly, there were others around us now. I thought they were walkers at first, but then they started hacking at zombies, too. I couldn't count how many people there were, but I knew there weren't many. One of them suddenly ripped the walker off of me, and stabbed his head with a knife. Others were doing the same. The walkers were still dropping, but not fast enough. Suddenly, I heard a scream as Lissa was grabbed my one. I turned around instantly. I had just about lost my life. was not about to lose Lissa.

I lifted my sword above my head, and the world seemed to go in slow motion. The sword hovered above me, and I brought together all my strength. I plunged the sword downwards with everything I had, and brought the walker's body down to the pavement. I didn't stop though.

I kept plunging my sword into the lifeless body, over and over again. The world blurred around me, and nothing mattered except the body on the pavement.

_Slash, slash, slash. _

Lissa's voice suddenly broke through my rage. "Rose, stop!" She was screaming, sobbing, and shaking me. I dropped my sword, letting it clatter to the ground. I was shaking, I realized. And as I felt a wetness on my cheek, I realized that I was crying, too.

Everything around me suddenly became blurry as tears obscured my vision. This wasn't right; I never cried. The last time I cried was when my mother told me that she didn't want me. And that was ten years ago.

"Rose, Rose, it's okay..." Lissa knelt down beside me as I sunk to the concrete. She was trying to soothe me, but nothing could stop my tears now. I was sobbing, and I held my face in my hands as I cried even harder. "I.. I've never seen you cry before."

My weary body couldn't respond; I just kept crying. It was so unlike me to cry. I had to stop. I had to stay strong for Lissa.

A headache suddenly starting forming in the back of my skull, and with each sob it grew worse, until blackness swamped my vision. The last thing I felt before I passed out was a pair of arms wrapping around me and lifting me up.

**_~|::|::|~_**

When I opened my eyes, I was in a bed. At first I thought that the past two years had been a dream, because surely, if everything were real, I would be dead by now.. Maybe I was in a hotel somewhere, and I had been drunk the night before. That would explain my headache, and it would explain why I felt to disoriented.

But when I sat up and saw Lissa, wearing a bloody pink shirt, I knew that I hadn't been dreaming. I really had faced people who had no soul, people who wanted to take a chunk out of my arm .

"Finally!" Lissa said with relieved sigh. "I thought you had a concussion or something. You've been out for five hours."

"Where am I?" I muttered, glancing around again. I was sitting on a soft tan comforter, in a room with lighter tan walls and various pictures with sayings like "Live, Laugh, Love," and that crap. The typical dreamy teenager's room.

"You're in a house."

"No shit." I said, shooting her a glare.

She just shrugged her shoulders. "Well, you asked. And I'm not really sure where we are, anyways."

"How'd we get here?"

"You were carried here." she informed me.

"You... you carried me?" I asked in confusion. Boy, was I sure asking a lot of questions today. Like some annoying five year old.

Lissa gave a small huff of annoyance. "No, Rose, I didn't carry you."

"Then who the hell did?" I asked.

"I don't know," Lissa responded. "Some guy. He was pretty cute." She then winked at me.

I immediately jumped up, off the bed, and grabbed a large knife that was resting on the chestnut nightstand beside the bed. "Where are they now?" It came out as a sort of growl.

"Relax, Rose, they're good people." She told me, as she came over and patter my shoulder, brushing a strand of platinum hair away from her face.

"Where are they?" I repeated.

"They went out to gather some supplies." she told me. "We're all going to reside here for a while."

"What do you mean 'we'? 'We' are not staying anywhere near strangers."

"Please! They're really nice, and..." Lissa bit her lip.

"Spill it, Liss, or I'm going to drag you out of here by that pretty hair of yours."

With a small smile, Lissa spoke. "Well, there's this guy..."

I groaned in annoyance. Of course. Lissa just had to have a crush on some guy who was more or less a complete stranger. "Fine. But what about the others?"

"Oh, they're cool too. There's three other guys, and this girl. I forgot their names, though. Except one guy, the really really cute one."

"Which is?" I prompted.

"His name's Christian. He's a little snide, but still; he's hot, with black hair and blue eyes."

"Oh Lord, Lissa, you have a crush on some stereotype bad boy?"

The only response was a giggle. Just then, I heard a door open, and hear some a few pairs of feet walking through the house.

"They're here!" Lissa squealed. "Let's go meet them."

She led me out of the room and into a hallway. As it turns out, we were on the second story of the house. Climbing down the carpeted stairs, we came to a halt in front of a large living room with tan couches and a tan chair, along with a dark oak coffee table and side table. Seriously, was this whole house bought out of some _Better Homes And Gardens _magazine?

Just then a guy came into the living room from an entrance on the other side. It had to be Christian, with those piercing blue eyes. "Sleeping Beast awakes at last." he said.

"Don't you mean beauty?" I replied, narrowing my eyes.

"No." came the reply.

Before I could cross the room and punch him in that smart mouth of his, another guy entered the room. He had red hair and freckles, and was about my height. He was pretty cute. "Psst, that's the one who carried you. Isn't he hot?" Lissa whispered.

"Yeah," I whispered back, slowly nodding. But it wasn't the red-head that I was talking about. It was the guy who came in behind him. The really hot, really tall guy, with shoulder-length hair pulled back into a ponytail.

The guy met my eyes with soft, deep chocolate brown ones. I held his gaze, admiring his features.

"I'm Mason." said the red-head, interrupting my ogling.

I turned to look at him, and nodded a greeted. Apparently this was the guy who carried me here, and I wanted to appear grateful. I knew I wasn't the lightest person in the world.

I expected the tall one to speak next, but instead it was a blonde guy who had just walked in, along with a girl. The blonde strode over and grabbed my hand, bringing it to his lips to kiss my knuckles. He then took a bow, and gave me a boyish grin. "The name's Adrian." he told me. "Pleasure to meet you."

"Rose," I responded, taking back my hand.

"Come on, Adrian, can't you at least try not to flirt with every girl you meet?" said the woman.

"Oh, Tasha, you know me." said Adrian.

"Sadly, yes." she responded. She then looked over to me, eying me up and down with disinterest. "I'm Tasha." she told me.

"Yeah, I kinda figured that out myself." I responded.

Christian chuckled, while Adrian made some sort of cat noise. Tasha just glared.

The tall guy, who was holding back a smile, spoke now. "And I'm Dimitri."

* * *

_**Yay! The gang's here now! A few more characters still to come, but for now... Let these people get to know each other. So, how'd you like this chapter? I know, I know; things went a little fast. The next chapter is going to be about these guys settling down in this house and getting to know each other. There may or may not be some drinking... I'm still deciding. Hope you enjoyed it, though! Oh, and also... I haven't proof-read this yet. I wanted to hurry up and get it published. It will be proof-read soon, though. And... I'm looking for someone who could 'beta' this. It would save me a bunch of time, and I could probably publish chapters faster. Anyways, thank you for reading! If you don'y mind, please review! Thank you to the people who've already reviewed, followed, and faved, and keep 'em coming!**_

_**~VA**_


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